Australian police

I don't want to say anything... well that could get me arrested... but obviously anything can these days.

The Australian Police force should be ashamed about what they consider a worth prosecution. In a time when murders, rapes and child abuse can't be solved because of not enough man hours, you see something like this in the news:

• Child abuse charges for 'laughing baby' video
• Simpsons' sex toon is child porn

And police wonder why they have little respect in the community. I wonder how much it has cost to prosecute these cases. These two men have had their lives ruined for doing what millions of people do every day.

What next - Assault on a plushy!

Firefox Chrome Registration Error

I thought I'd use my blog to pass on answers to annoying problems I've had, and how I managed to fix them. So here's the first "installment".

For a month or so, every time I started Firefox I received the following error:

Firefox could not install this item because of a failure in Chrome Registration. Please contact the author about this problem.

If I clicked on "OK" the message repeated several times. Then Firefox would work as normal. Nothing serious, but really annoying.

To fix the problem I simply right clicked the Firefox icon, and then selected "Run as administrator". No more errors!

It seems that there had been an error installing some add-ons, and all it required was Administrator access to fix the problem.

How to Speak Like a Kiwi

Milburn - capital of Victoria
Peck - to fill a suitcase
Pissed aside - chemical which kills insects
Pigs - for hanging out washing with
Pump - to act as agent for prostitute
Pug - large animal with a curly tail
Nin tin dough - computer game
Munner stroney - soup
Min - male of the species
Mess Kara - eye makeup
McKennock - person who fixes cars
Mere - Mayor
Leather - foam produced from soap
Lift - departed
Kiri Pecker - famous Australian businessman
Kittle crusps - potato chips
Ken's - Cairns
Jumbo - pet name for someone called Jim
Jungle Bills - Christmas carol
Inner me - enemy
Guess - vapour
Fush - marine creatures
Fitter cheney - type of pasta
Ever cardeau - avocado
Fear hear - blonde
Ear - mix of nitrogen and oxygen
Ear roebucks - exercise at the gym
Duffy cult - not easy
Amejen - visualise
Day old chuck - very young poultry
Bug hut - popular recording
Bun button - been bitten by insect
Beard - a place to sleep
Sucks Peck - Half a dozen beers
Ear New Zulland - an extinct airline
Beers - large savage animals found in U.S. forests
Veerjun - mythical New Zealand maiden
One Doze - well known computer program
Brudge - structure spanning a stream
Sex - one less than sivven
Tin - one more than nine
Iggs Ecktly - Precisely
Earoplane - large flying machine
Beggage Chucken - place to leave your suitcase at the earport
Sivven Sucks Sivven - large Boeing aircraft
Sivven Four Sivven - larger Boeing aircraft
Cuds - children
Pits - domestic animals
Cuttin - baby cat
Munce - usually served on toast

Weird Animals...

This months installment of weird animals should be called "Creepy Crawlies to Scare the Pants Off a Kiwi".

The spider in this photo is a Huntsman Spider. Isn't he cute - not. This particular one was living under our kitchen sink.

Huntsman Spiders have 8 eyes, and can have a leg span of up to 30cm. Pretty big and scary!

They do bite, but only cause a small amount of pain and are not harmfully to humans. Huntsman don't use a web to catch their prey, but hunt them down - hence the name Huntsman.

They are actually good to have around the house (I am told!) because they eat insects you don't want inside.

But if the spider in this picture appeared in my house, I would be grabbing a cricket bat or can of spray - I'd rather have bugs than this any day!

I Know Almost Everyone Has Seen It...

But I couldn't resist adding it! I'm parched as!

News Flash

Research shows that smoking while pregnant harms your baby.

Ok, so it's not new, and everyone knows this fact.

So why do so many Australian women smoke when they are pregnant. I see it almost on a daily basis.

And every second car has someone smoking in it, with children in the back.

How can people be so stupid when they know the damage it's doing?

If you smoke while pregnant you should be charged with child abuse.

All Things Rugby - Union and League

I feel sorry for Brisbane sports fans - particularly those who are fans of the funny shaped ball.

You see two Saturday nights in a row I have been to a packed Suncorp Stadium - the first for the Bledisloe Cup, and the second for the Broncos vs Storm NRL semi-final.

I feel sorry for those home fans who paid a couple of hundred dollars to get to see both games - and see both home teams lose.

Ok, when I reflect on a glorious victory by the All Blacks, that feeling soon disappears!

I'm back!

After months of frustration I've finally ditched Vodafone, and have a landline ADSL2 connection installed. And the 24 megabits is great!

The Vodafone connection has been so bad I haven't been able to get on here to post anything - but as of today Vodafone are gone!

It's Cold!

We've lived in Australia for just over a year, and it seems we've become acclimatised already.

Today was cold - 17 degrees. The heater's cranked up tonight, as it's supposed to get down to around 5 or 6 degrees.

Coming from Dunedin it seems really odd - 17 degrees would be more than you could hope for at this time of year! 5 or 6 would usually be the high!

The Greatest Day in NZ Sport?

Yesterday was perhaps the greatest day of all time in New Zealand sport - at least it's the greatest day in a long time. Kiwi's quickly jump all over their sports stars when they don't perform, so I thought I would recognise the great achievements of Saturday 16th August 2008.

Firstly, New Zealand won 5 Olympic medals in one day for the first time ever - 2 gold (1st Olympic gold in track and field in over 30 years), 1 silver and two bronze. It's certainly our greatest ever Olympic day.

While in South Africa, the All Blacks kept the Springboks scoreless in a test at home for the first time ever. It's hard enough winning in SA, without even considering keeping them scoreless.

And to top it off the New Zealand Warriors had a win in the NRL propelling them into finals contention.

I can't think of too many other days that would rate higher in NZ sport! It's a great day to be a kiwi!

Day 6 - Still No Medals

Today marks day 6 of the Beijing Olympics, and New Zealand still has no medals.

I've just been looking at the medal table, and even Kazakhstan has more medals than New Zealand.
Even countries I haven't heard of (is Kyrgyzstan even a real country?!?!?) have won medals!

I wonder what the TAB is paying for NZ athletes winning nothing at all?

Makes me wonder how long the NZ government can continue to pour millions into these constantly under performing sports.

My First Vent - Vodafone 3G Wireless Broadband

I've decided to use my blog as an outlet to vent my frustration of bad service, bad products or just anything that pisses me off.

The first company on my target list is Vodafone Australia.

Earlier this year when we moved house, we found that Telstra (maybe they should be my first vent???) had removed the phone connection from the house and required $299 to reinstall it.

I wasn't too happy about having to pay that as you can imagine, so I decided to investigate wireless. I found that Vodafone Australia offer a 3G Wireless connection, where you get 5 gig of data for $39.95 per month, with speeds of up to 1.5 megabits.

So I signed up for a 24 month contract. All sounds pretty good. But the problem is, that like me, thousands of people signed up for the same deal. So what should be broadband speeds, turned out to be less than dial up for 3 times the price. And there are also frequent disconnections (I'm talking 15 - 20 per evening).

And don't even talk about their help desk service where a computer named Lara can't understand what you are talking about.

So if you are thinking wireless broadband, don't think Vodafone!

How Will They Cope?

Last week Telecom New Zealand announced their annual operating profit fell 15.5% for the last financial year.

Apparently they made a disappointing $NZ713,000,000.

However will they cope with only making three quarters of a billion dollars? I guess they'll have to overcharge even more.

The (Rugby) Boot's on the Other Foot

Recent news reports suggest that Rugby League in Australia is in disarray, because Rugby Union is "poaching" players from the NRL.

There's 2 points I have to make about that:

1. Pay your players more - Sonny Bill is worth more than $200,000 per season. Unless the salary cap is increased it will keep happening.
   
   
2. Now the boot is on the other foot, the NRL don't like it. It's not that long ago that Union players were being poached by cashed up league clubs.

Don't get me wrong, I do like league, but when the administrators and coaches get paid more than the players then there's a real problem. In the words of SBW, "The fans don't turn up to see David Moffit".

Just When You Thought TV Couldn't Get Any Worse...

...Then along comes a new series of Beverley Hills 90210. At first when I read it I thought it was a joke.

According to Channel 10 Australia, a new series is returning on September 8th.

"Jennie Garth (Kelly), Tori Spelling (Donna) and Shannen Doherty (Brenda) will return as guest stars playing (respectively) a guidance counsellor, a boutique owner and a high school musical director, giving Generation X their dose of mature storylines."

What's next - a 60 year old Fonzie in Happy Days Millennium Edition?

Beer of the Month

I'd never tried a dark beer before, and when I was in a local bar recently I noticed they had Carlton Black - so I ordered a schooner.

And I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. I expected a thick bitter tasting beer, but what I got was a deep mocha flavour. It was almost like someone had put a shot of malted coffee into my beer.

There's also a hint of a smoky taste, which I'd put down to the drum roasted malt (actually, I read the label on the back!).

Over all it is a rich tasting beer that is really easy to drink. However it's not the kind of beer you'd waste by downing a dozen or so - more of treat at meal time or on a cold winters evening.

Polution

The footage from the Beijing Olympics has amazed me, with shots of smoggy skylines. The amount of pollution China produces is wrong.

No matter what the rest of the world does to combat global warming, it doesn't matter as long as China does nothing.

I know they have cleaned up their act for the Olympics, but I bet it all goes back to normal right after the closing ceremony.

It does make you think, if they have cut pollution down for the Olympics, how bad must it be in a regular day?

Google Street View

Good on the people at Google, for coming up with another world first - Google Street View. Australia is the 3rd country in the world to be imaged by Google's team of magical cars.

For anyone who doesn't know what it is, a team of cars drove every street in the country with digitals cameras mounted on all angles. All of the images were stuck together and you can get a 360 degree view of any street in the country.


On tonights news there was the typical news report when something new like this comes out. The camera crew went into Brisbane and asked people what they thought of it.

Most people seemed to think it was a breach of their privacy. It amazed me how stupid people are - most of them seemed to give off the impression that they thought there were web cams pointed at everyones house.

Now I've been outside for about an hour and looked everywhere, and still can't find that damned webcam!

The State of Television...And My Life

Tonight I sat down to watch some telly. We have the full Foxtel package which comes with 1000s of channels. Well, probably really around 70 or so.

But amazing with all those channels there's nothing on (hmmmm... maybe there's a song in that).

So while I was surfing through the channels I came across Celebrity Wife Swap. Just when I thought TV couldn't get any worse!

But then I got thinking, what would make a funny swap? Maybe Ozzy Osbourne could have Martha Stewart move in? Or Marge Simpson could move in with Peter Griffin on Family Guy.

Then I though... what the hell am I thinking? I'm truly bored and have no life! And to make things worse, I've even blogged it!

Weird Animals in Australia

Back by popular demand - my Weird Animals in Australia segment.

The animal in the bucket that looks like a snake, is not actually a snake - it is in fact a legless lizard. To the average uninitiated person, it looks like a snake, slithers like a snake and is scaly like a snake. But it's a fair dinkum lizard.

You can see just below the head a tiny little leg (yes, I know, how can it be a legless lizard if it does actually have legs?).

The legless lizard, like all other Australian lizards, is non venomous, and can reach up to 60 cm long.

Winter in Oz

As a kiwi who has been living in Aussie for just over a year, I'm still getting used to the weather in South East Queensland.

It's the middle of winter, and usually at home in Dunedin I'd be suffering through below zero temperatures, snow, rain and hail. And that's just a good day.

Today in Brisbane the temperature was in the mid 20s - that's a great summers day in New Zealand.

If this is winter, I can take it!

Wastage

I was recently watching a show about recycling, and was shocked at how much timber goes into making a ream of A4 copy paper. Apparently the average pine tree makes only 5 reams of copy paper, or one box.

Now think about how large a tree is, and how small a box of copy paper is. Add to that the fact that it can take 20 years for a pine tree to grow.

Now think about how much paper you use in your workplace, school or uni.

Add in another interesting fact, that each individual piece of paper takes 10 litres of water to manufacture, and copious amounts of chemicals.

I haven't even mentioned the pollution that is produced.

So next time you go to click the print button, think again before you do it. If you do really need to print, then try a print preview so you can see how many pages you are actually getting.

Humans vs Snails

I saw an interesting fact recently that snails can't resist beer.

If you leave a dish of beer out it will attract any snails in the area, who crawl in and drink until they can't drink any more. Apparently the snails will be so drunk they can't get out of the beer and drown.

Sounds like a typical night in an average Aussie pub!

Blogging

I've set myself a blogging challenge - I want to make at least one post a day. I guess there will be days where that just isn't possible, but I'll give it a crack.

I figure the hard part isn't about getting the time to do it - It's just thinking of something intelligent to say.

But most people that know me will say that it shouldn't be hard for me to find something to talk about... they will however agree on the fact that it isn't always intelligent!

The Price You Pay

Tonight upon going to the supermarket, my wife and I noticed that petrol was priced at $1.36.9 at the nearby Caltex.

That's a few cents down on last time we gassed up. So the plan was made - do the shopping, then get some fuel.

But less than an hour later, the same service station had changed the price to $1.44.9.

The price of a barrel of crude oil dropped over night by around $US3.

So.... Ummm... How the hell does the price increase!

Crude oil goes up - the price per litre goes up.

Crude oil goes down - it seems the price still goes up.

I wonder if my boss would accept me asking for money just because I feel like it on the day?

In fact, you owe me $1.25 for reading this post (tomorrow it'll be $1.40.9, so count yourself lucky!)

Living in a non-Rugby land

It may be hard for the average Kiwi to understand, but there are actually some places that the world doesn't revolve around rugby.

Yes, I'm not kidding - it's true. Queensland is one of those mythical places.

Australia had a fantastic win over the All Blacks in the weekend, and it went barely unnoticed. I'm sure most of the population here was unaware it was even on.

Queensland is league country. They eat, sleep and breath league. If Darren Lockyer is injured the whole state goes into mourning.

There's also barely a mention about AFL here. Even the NRL league news from NSW rates higher than the Brisbane Lions here.

I went to the Broncos vs Sharks at Suncorp in the weekend. There was a disappointing crowd there - just under 30,000 when most of the games this season have been closer to 40,000.

The test at Carisbrook in Dunedin a couple of weeks ago had 29,000 and everyone was wrapped about the huge crowd that attended.

I bet some of the NZ Rugby franchises wish they could get anywhere near 30,000 for a club game - most struggle to get that for even a semi-final match.

The worst thing for me about living in a non-Rugby land is that the Air New Zealand Cup isn't even on TV here. How can I survive!

Wallabies 34 - All Blacks 19

What colour does a mourining All Black supporter wear? I can't wear black... Maybe it should be Green and Gold?

Fresh start

Thought it was time for a fresh start to my Blog!

So out with the old, in with the new!